Athens, Ga. – A wide variety of graphic art created by a University of Georgia graduate student in collaboration with a College of Education researcher will be featured in an art show titled, “Drawing Change: The ART of Teacher Education” at the Taylor-Grady House May 14 from 6-8:30 p.m.
The show will include small original drawings and prints to poster size pieces rendered in a comic book or graphic novel style from a three-year teacher education research study conducted by Stephanie Jones, an associate professor in the department of educational theory and practice, and Jim Woglom, an art education doctoral student.
The event is open to the public and the art will be available for purchase. All proceeds will go to benefit a Garnet Ridge community afterschool program for children ages 5-12. Refreshments will be served and music will be performed by Papa Legba.
Jones and Woglom are raising funds to support the Awesome Clubhouse @ La Escuelita, an informal education center located in the largely Latino community off Jefferson Road in Athens. The center was created through a UGA College of Education partnership with the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia in May 2013.
About 40-50 children participate in afterschool, Saturday and summer programming, said Jones, who helped create and now directs the center.
“With the Food Bank, we are trying to find sustainable ways to provide support for food insecurity and educational programs that cultivate curiosity, creativity, a strong sense of self and social justice,” said Jones. “We do this through different areas of literacy, including the arts, nature, sustainability, science, design, mathematics, reading and writing.”
Thirty UGA teacher education students participate in the program along with three other COE faculty members. Children in the neighborhood attend the afterschool program three days a week. There are also special offerings on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. In the summer, the program offers several weeks of morning camps and afternoon programming three days a week. A hot lunch is served six days a week.
At the program, children can paint, work on visual arts projects and build with blocks and other materials. The clubhouse also has a library for children to read, write and stage plays and puppet shows. There is a gallery space where photographs taken by children are displayed.
“We’re giving children access to arts, science, nature and space to be creative,” said Jones. “Our UGA students are assigned a space in which they support whatever the child is interested in doing, whether it’s painting or folding paper into an airplane.”